The government printing press employees have not received a dime for the past three months. The Horn newspapers received the information from the managing director of the government printer Mr. Said Salah Shire.
The managing director revealed that most printing work which the government printer used to do have been taken over by some private advertising firms. This private companies then ship their jobs abroad.
Speaking to Eryal TV journalists Mr. Said “For your information the government printer employees never receive salaries directly from the government but instead operate a private firm this means whatever services we offer and receive payment for these monies we are advanced is what we pay our workers.”
He added that most of the work they used to do for government departments and parastatals have been given to private companies in this respect they have experienced cash flow problems.
He went on to say “On the other hand the few ministries and parastatals that we owe money have not received their share of the budget; so had to wait until this new administration reads the budget.”
The director speaking on behalf of his employees said that the Workers should be patient since the country is in transition. He added that what has caused this predicament is that many parastatals that printed their documents have be privatized while other have taken the bulk of their printing jobs to private companies this has caused the government printing house to loose out on business.
We over heard that the new president H.E Musa Bihi Abdi has promised to return all important government documents being printed by private firms back to the government printer.
For instance licenses, road permits, log books and other sensitive government documents are in the wrong hands.
The managing director cited the Somaliland education syllabus which the ministry of education contracted HEMA bookshop which then ships the publications of the textbooks to Kenya for printing.